With conference play well underway, the basketball teams find themselves in different positions. The women’s team is on a five-game winning streak, while the men’s team continues to struggle for consistency.
The men’s team has lost three of four and started conference play 0-2. On Saturday, the Wildcats fell to West Texas A&M in a game that saw the Buffs shoot nearly 60 percent, while head coach Jason Copeland’s ACU squad shot only 44 percent from the field.
“I think what hurt us is what we’ve been fighting along. If you take away a five-minute stretch when they went on a 20-10 run, we played well,” Copeland said.
Copeland’s team was playing without guard Dustin Heiman and forward Vladimir Gavranic. Heiman and Gavranic are the team’s fourth and sixth leading scorers respectively, and Copeland says their absence affected his squad, which has struggled with depth issues all season.
Conversely, head coach Shawna Lavender and the women’s team have been on a roll, starting conference play 2-0. The Wildcats’ most recent success was a thrilling 69-67 victory over No. 9 West Texas. The victory was ACU’s fifth in a row, and their eighth in the last 10 contests.
“This was one of the most physical games we played all year,” Lavender said. “Mentally, we stayed in the game. West Texas made a run, and we could have let them back in, but our girls played physical. We really executed our game plan for 40 minutes.”
The Wildcats had four players score in double figures, paced by Jody Meyer who scored 19 points while collecting 13 rebounds. Lavender was also pleased with the play of point guard Kat Kundmueller, who played aggressively, scoring 12 points and dishing out five assists.
Both teams find themselves in different situations heading into their games against Angelo State in San Angelo on Saturday. The men’s team will look to get on track, while the women’s team will look to continue to gain momentum as conference play continues.
“Against Angelo we have to have a balanced attack,” Lavender said. “We have to take advantage of mismatches we’ve got and make them come out and guard our players.”
